This is the tombstone of Gnaeus Musius, standard
bearer of the Fourteenth. Musius' tombstone shows him with the standard
(the 'eagle'). He died at the age of 32 after fifteen service years (CIL 13.6901).

Edge of Empire. The book Arjen Bosman and I wrote about Rome's Lower Rhine Frontier (order; review)

From Mainz' first phase of occupation also comes this head of a prince,
perhaps Gaius Caesar or Lucius Caesar, sons of Agrippa
and Julia
and grandsons of the emperor Augustus.
Alternatively, it is Augustus as a young man ('puer Octavianus').

The bust, which is of an exceptionally high artistic quality, was
probably made by the Greek sculptors employed by the emperor in Rome;
sending statues and busts to towns in the provinces was not unique, and
proves that Mainz was already regarded as an important city during the
reign of Augustus (31 BCE - 14 CE).

This is the tombstone of a soldier of the sixteenth legion named Titus
Pompeius; he was born in Viana, a town in Raetia (CIL 13.6944). As usual,
the text is largely made up from abbreviations that every literate Roman
understood. Two spelling errors in the fifth line inform us about the pronunciation
of Latin in Mainz.

Titus Pompeius, son of Titus, of the Voltinian district, born in Viana,
a soldier of the sixteenth legion, forty years old, in his nineteenth year
of service, is buried here. His heir and fellow-citizen erected this monument.

The legionary base, castra in Latin, was in
the part of Mainz that is still known as Kästrich, in which the ancient
name survives. It measured about 36 ha and offered accommodation to two legions.

The years after the Teutoburg disaster were difficult, because it was believed that the Germanic
tribes were dangerous and would attack the cities along the Rhine. Sometimes,
reinforcements from other units were needed.

This is the tombstone of a scout from the Thirteenth
legion Gemina called Publius Urvinus (CIL 13.6884). Under
normal circumstances, this unit was in Augsburg (on the Upper Danube) or
Windisch (south of the Upper Rhine). The man must have seen action in Slovenia
and Hungary. He died in his eighteenth year as a legionary.

Most soldiers
of his unit were recruited in Italy or the plains along the river Po, and one wonders
what he must have thought about the cold country north of the Alps.

This is the tombstone of a soldier of the Second
legion Augusta named Gaius Julius Niger, who was born in Gaul, joined
the army on the Iberian peninsula and must have served in the recently
pacified area called Cantabria (CIL 13.7234). Like XIII Gemina,
it supported XIV Gemina and XVI Gallica in the years after the disaster
in the Teutoburg Forest, and it is known that II Augusta took part in the
retaliatory campaigns conducted by prince Germanicus,
the son of Drusus,
founder of Mainz.

During these campaigns, sometimes no less than four legions
were staying in Mainz. A second legionary base was therefore founded at
the Weisenau, four kilometers south of the first base. It remained in use
during the first century, although it was often used by auxiliary troops,
and not legionaries.

The opposite bank of the Rhine was occupied by a tribe known as Chatti.
In 39, the emperor Caligula
decided to attack them. According to our sources, Caligula's campaign were
not really important, but archaeological finds suggest that this is not
true. Two new legions were founded, the Fifteenth
and Twenty-Second
Primigenia. The fifteenth legion was added to XIV Gemina (hence the
number). Lucius Varius Sacco of Milan in northern Italy was one of the
recruits (CIL 13.11855). He died in Mainz after only one year
of service, which almost certainly means that he was killed in action.
He was twenty-five.

In the winter of 40/41, Servius
Sulpicius Galba (the future emperor) overcame the Chatti, which lessened
the tensions. Two years later, when the emperor Claudius
invaded Britain, there was a new reshuffling of units, and both legions
of Mainz were replaced. The new units were IIII
Macedonica and the recently founded XXII Primigenia.

This is the tombstone of Gnaeus Coelius Marullinus, born in Narbo
in southern France (CIL 13.6863). He died before the Roman armies
disgraced themselves in the winter of 69/70. One year before, the emperor
Nero
had committed suicide and had been succeeded by Galba; but the commander
of the Rhine army, Vitellius,
had revolted. The garrison of Mainz supported him and joined his march
on Rome. At that moment, however, the Batavians
revolted.
Because the garrisons were depleted, they were able
to conquer parts of the Rhineland and the city of Mainz was captured by
other rebels. Kästrich was besieged but remained in Roman hands.

This tombstone dates to the decade
after the reconquest of the Rhineland. The soldier, Lucius Valerius Fronto,
must have been a marine from Misenum in Italy first. He was honorably dismissed
before the legion was transferred to Hungary.

Although order had been restored and the civil settlement between the
fortress at Mainz and the river was rapidly growing, the Rhine frontier
was not safe yet. In 83, the emperor Domitian,
a son of Vespasian, subdued the Chatti on the east bank. The Mainz
Pedestals belong to this period.

One of the legions
that was in these years added to the garrison of Mainz was XXI
Rapax, which arrived from Windisch in Switzerland. Quintus Marcius
Balbus and his son Celer did not survive his stay in Mainz.

After this war, the Romans occupied positions on the east bank, where
they started to build the Taunus limes.
Mainz no longer was a frontier city and continued to grow. Domitian reorganized
the military zone and gave it the status of a province,
which was called Germania Superior. Mainz became its capital and the seat
of the governor.
However, the emperor was not successful in finding a good representative,
because in 89, governor Lucius Antonius Saturninus revolted. The rebellion was soon repressed.

The rebellious legions were transferred and Mainz received a new unit:
XXII Primigenia, which had already been in the city before. Gaius Faltonius
Secundus was one of the legionaries. He was born in Liguria, served for
twenty-one years, and died at the venerable age of forty-six. He is shown with two
servants or slaves (CIL 13.6960).

The Twenty-Second never left Mainz, and was -after a century in which
the city had been occupied by two legions- the only unit. (The reference
to a Sixth
legion Gallicana in the Historia
Augusta ["Aurelian", 7.1] is almost certainly incorrect.) It comes as no surprise
that in the second century, the inscriptions of Mainz are predominantly
made for citizens. The city rapidly lost its military nature.